Day Trading Investment Strategy - Beat The Market On Trade Timing

By Peter Skonctue

Computational ability has improved over a billion-fold since the first computers of the 1950s, and they've made pervasive inroads to nearly every aspect of modern life; entire industries have vanished or been transformed because of computers. Another transformation in an industry is underway; it really got its start in the late '90s.

We're speaking of course of trading on the stock and commodity markets. Of course, trade timing is key to being successful with any sort of stock trading. However, in day trading, timing is of paramount importance. A trader who is the first to act is generally the trader who comes away with the largest profits.

Day trading is part and parcel for the stock brokerage career, and day traders at big financial firms do trade swings with leverages of 20:1 or more (leverage is taking out a short term loan to buy shares, hoping that the profit on selling them will pay off the loan and its fees).

Since leverage is one of the causes of the woeful state of the world economy at present, leverage has earned a reputation as being an extremely dangerous thing. Think of leverage as a tool; when used responsibly, it can be very helpful - but used improperly, it can cause serious damage. It all depends how the tool is used. Like a chainsaw, leverage is not inherently dangerous.

However, enough traders have made careless mistakes with leveraged trades to give day trading the same kind of dangerous reputation. While there are other ways to make profitable stock trades like the buy and hold strategy used by Warren Buffett, this is not a style which is well suited to every trader. Making profitable trades on this model means having an in depth knowledge of how the market works and of the long term prospects for the companies whose stock is being traded.

What's starting to change is that computational power is getting cheap enough, and artificial neural network modeling is getting robust enough, that not only are spam filters getting better, so is the ability to do market segment analysis. Day traders are, in large part, pattern analysis wonks. They're looking for a pattern of prices and movements that indicate that a small investment can become a larger one...and automated tools, called day trading robots, are making those jobs easier.

There are traders out there who have an especially entrepreneurial bent who sell subscriptions to email newsletters which provide subscribers with reports that give them access to the analytical prowess of these robots. Most of these newsletters are targeted towards smaller investors and they tend to be focused on penny stocks (also known as the pink sheet market). These newsletters aren't free, but having regular reports from a trader with a solid record of successful trading can be quite valuable indeed.

The market analysis available in these newsletters can be a useful tool for profitable day trading. However, it would be a mistake to use this information as your only source. A savvy trader should always do their due diligence and learn about the companies they're interested in trading along with the tips from day trading robots in newsletters. These tips are based on past performance of stocks and while they are generally a good predictor of future market behavior, traders should be aware that there is always some risk involved in trading on the stock market. - 31970

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